


a place to call home - Jon Arryn

by sanssstark



Series: (we are all looking for) a place to call home [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Gen, Part of the (we are all looking for) a place to call home universe, WARNING: This is part of a series and will not make sense without having read the original work!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-05
Updated: 2018-04-05
Packaged: 2019-04-18 16:03:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14216748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanssstark/pseuds/sanssstark
Summary: Jon Arryn and Ned Stark have a talk about the Free Folk.Part of the "(we are all looking for) a place to call home" universe!





	a place to call home - Jon Arryn

**Author's Note:**

> I was feeling constricted by the limits of a limited POV!

 

 

Jon Arryn has never much cared for the rumors regarding the Starks.

He had known Rickard Stark well, befriending the younger man during the war. Rickard Stark had been of an age with the child Jon may have had with Jeyne, and Jon Arryn had grown to like the young Lord, whose Father had perished in the battle. After the war Rickard had left North, not before inviting Jon north should he ever wish to, and it had been another decade before he saw the lad again, this time to arrange a fostering.

He had basically raised Ned, molding him from a serious and sad little boy to a good and honest young man. Jon knew his foster son well and from Ned’s stories of home he felt as though he knew the North well as well.

For him, the North was not the land of nightmare monsters as it may be for many others in the South. Jon knew too many good northerners to truly lay credence to the rumors of men eating men and of monsters in wolves skin. Still, his skin crawls when Ned tales fanciful tales of Monsters from Beyond the Wall, wondering if Ned has lost his mind.

“What are you-”

“Please listen, my lord.” Ned interrupts him. He looks uncomfortable, though Jon cannot tell exactly what about. “I must speak to you of a great threat that will befall Westeros soon and the choice I made in preparation.”

“Ned-”

“Please, my lord.” Ned looks at him with wide, solemn eyes that seem to plead better than any words Ned could ever speak. The last time Ned had looked at him as such, he had begged for leave from King’s Landing to seek out his sister after the war.

“Alright.” Jon allows.

“Thank you, my lord.” Ned takes a deep breath and he looks older and younger than his years simultaneously. “I sent you a letter, my lord, before leaving to the Wall in aid of the Watch against the Free Folk. When we arrived at the Wall, my brother Benjen told me of tales the wildlings they had captured had told them. Of monsters in the night, with glowing blue eyes and the ability to raise the dead.”

Ned pauses, breathes in, and shakes his head. He looks so unsettled, Jon has the urge to comfort him in some way. “Neither of us truly lay any credence towards the claims, but Benjen felt it prudent to inform me of them. We left for beyond the wall with our forces, prepared to meet the Wildlings in battle. Instead, we met the Others.”

“Pardon me?”

“We were attacked, in the dead of night. We thought little of the rumors at first, in all honesty, but we woke one early dawn being attacked. I still do not know how many men had died before I even woke, but with every dead on our side, the other side gained in numbers.” Ned explains. “I saw it with my own eyes, my Lord. A man, just felled by a wight, arising with a hole in his chest. Our death no longer knew who they were nor whom they were fighting. We barely escaped with our lives.”

“Ned-” Jon does not know what to feel about Ned’s outlandish tale. If this were any other man, Jon would call them a liar and be done with it, but this was Ned who embraced House Arryn’s Words “as high as honor” better than any of Jon’s heirs.

“I swear it.” Ned says sincerely, leaning forward. “We lost 400 men that dawn and the Others gained 400 soldiers.”

“How can it be?” Jon asks. “The Others are a fairy tale.”

Ned looks uncomfortable as he exhales loudly. “The Starks have always maintained that Winter is coming. We have just lived through a summer that lasted a decade. I asked my maester to look into it. He cannot find a single mention of another summer lasting as long in the chronic. I fear, my lord, that the Long Night will come again and we must prepare.”

Jon leans back, not saying a word as he looks at his former ward. He loves Ned like a son, despite not having seen him in close to half a decade. If this were anyone else, he thinks again, but even with this being Ned this all seemed to fantastical.

“My lord,” Ned says again, “I knows it, my sons knows it, my bannermen knows it, the Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch knows it. The Long Night is coming and the North has started making preparations for it.”

“Preparations?” Jon asks.

“Aye.” Ned inhales. “We are saving 2/3rds of every harvest, the eldest men of all towns have been sent to the wall as fortification and I and Lord Commander Stark made a pact with the ~~Wild-~~ Free Folk from beyond the wall.”

Jon’s mind halts, as he stares at Ned in disbelief. Did he hear that correctly? He could not have! The man Jon raised as his own would never be so foolish. The son of Rickard Stark would never be so foolish.

“I treated with Mance Rayder, King of the Free Folk, for the Free Folk to move south of the Wall and into the North and the Gift. Mance agreed to the terms I set forth. The Wildlings must adhere to all Northern laws and customs and they ...”

“Seven be good Ned!” Jon interrupts his foster son, standing suddenly. “Have you lost leave of your senses?”

“While I understand that the Crown may not be happy with my decision, it was both within my prerogative as Warden of the North, and as Lord of Winterfell to make this decision.” Ned says, not looking Jon in the eyes. “The Free Folk will stay in Northern Lands and we have enough empty keeps to populate.”

Jon sinks back down in his chair, holding a hand above his mouth in shock. “Gods be good, Ned. What have you done?”

Ned’s voice is sharp when he speaks, after a pause during which both men stare at each other. “The Long Night will come, my lord, and there is nothing we can do but to not give the enemy a fodder for their armies.” He clasps his hands together. “While I understand the desire to not trust a man from beyond the wall, they are nothing but men. We cannot pretend to be the civilized folk while we leave men to die a horrible death when we could have saved them.”

Jon inhales. This is Ned, he reminds himself. Though he has barely seen Ned in the past decade and a half, he knew of his foster sons reasoning of not coming south. The man had lost father, brother and sister during a war that had gained him naught but heartbreak and misery. Following the Rebellion, Ned had left for Winterfell with barely a goodbye to Jon or Robert. He had been disappointed in them, Jon remembers, over the Targaryen children, furious with Robert and Tywin Lannister and even Jon himself.

Despite Ned’s anger then, he had come south in aid against the Greyjoy Rebellion immediately. The men from the North had been desperately needed reinforcements in battle, and with Ned’s help they had been able to force back the Greyjoy Rebel. It had been Ned’s words to save the younger Greyjoy children, forcing Robert to reconsider his desire for vengeance. Jon had been so proud of both his boys then.

This is Ned, Jon reminds himself. Ned would never do a thing to endanger the crown.

“Tell me everything about your decision.”

**Author's Note:**

> I will probably add more of these One Shots at opportune moments in the series, so if you wish to be up to date bookmark and suscribe the newly created series! The One Shots will never spoil something from the actual story and will rather fit into the existing work.


End file.
